Moor your craft higher up than the enemy, and facing the sun.
See _supra_, § 2. The repetition of these words in connection with
water is very awkward. Chang Yü has the note: 或岸邊爲陳或水上泊舟皆
須面陽而居高 “Said either of troops marshalled on the river-bank,
or of boats anchored in the stream itself; in either case it is
essential to be higher than the enemy and facing the sun.” The
other commentators are not at all explicit. One is much tempted
to reject their explanation of 視生 altogether, and understand it
simply as “seeking safety.” [Cf. 必生 in VIII. § 12, and _infra_,
§ 9.] It is true that this involves taking 視 in an unusual, though
not, I think, an impossible sense. Of course the earlier passage
would then have to be translated in like manner.
Do not move up-stream to meet the enemy.
Tu Mu says: “As water flows downwards, we must not pitch our camp
on the lower reaches of a river, for fear the enemy should open
the sluices and sweep us away in a flood. This is implied above
in the words 視生處高. Chu-ko Wu-hou has remarked that ‘in river
warfare we must not advance against the stream,’ which is as
much as to say that our fleet must not be anchored below that of
the enemy, for then they would be able to take advantage of the
current and make short work of us.” There is also the danger,
noted by other commentators, that the enemy may throw poison on
the water to be carried down to us. Capt. Calthrop’s first version
was: “Do not cross rivers in the face of the stream”—a sapient
piece of advice, which made one curious to know what the correct
way of crossing rivers might be. He has now improved this into:
“Do not fight when the enemy is between the army and the source of
the river.”
So much for river warfare.